development

The last couple of months have been a crazy, busy, wild roller-coaster ride. We sold our house with an extremely agressive closing period, bought a house, moved, got the boys settled in to a new school and home, and organized and hosted the annual Pittsburgh Walk for Williams Syndrome.

The boys have adjusted beautifully. I was worried that Parker would struggle with the mid-year transition – leaving his friends and making new ones – but that fear was unfounded. He did great with the (even more) aggressive curriculum and is smiling every day when he gets off of the bus. Reed quickly made friends with his peers and teachers – it is amazing how people are drawn to him.

I am relieved that I can refocus my energy now and get back to the basics.

On the home front, we are painting and doing some recarpeting – along with the general maintenance, yard work, etc.

We are working with Reed’s team to develop a really strong IEP to set him up for success in Kindergarten. He will be in the regular ed class with his peers with some pull out for learning support and we will be working to further improve his focus – which his is greatest barrier to learning.

Speaking of focus, Parker struggles to attend at school too but is doing quite well academically. His teacher has mentioned “2e” (twice exceptional: gifted and ADD – no “h” for Parker) several times as a strong possibility so we are working on strategies to improve his focus while planning to test for gifted programming next winter. His focus will be critical to testing and accessing curriculum to keep him challenged and motivated. We are looking at many natural solutions (essential oils, diet, supplements, exercise – and yes, we are trying all of these with Reed, too) and will consider medication as a last resort.

As for me, I am keeping busy with house projects, the kids, gearing up for summer, my development consulting business, and building my essential oil business. So, long story short, my crazy life is settling down and ramping up at the same time!

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*To read more about my essential oil obsession, click here. Or, to learn about the oils I use and how to get them, contact me using this form:

A couple of months ago, I bought this domain. I hadn’t blogged in about two years and the process was very therapeutic for me. I missed writing. Every time I went to write on the old blog, I felt limited by the title and previous content. I have a lot of interests wanted a place that was more inclusive. Baby J and Bean is still there and will be for the forseeable future if you want to check out.

My goal is to write here at least once a week. I plan to continue writing about my family and also about parenting a child with special needs. Some of my other (obsessive) interests are knitting, food, pinterest projects – yes, I’m one of “those” moms, and improving my family’s health and wellness. I recently started running, we are trying to eat (and I am trying to cook) better and we have also started paying more attention to the products that we are using in our home and eliminating toxins when possible.

Now for an update: Scott is still working with the same company and I started working as an independant development (fundraising) consultant about nine months ago. I love the flexibility that consulting affords and I really enjoy supporting efforts by organizations that are close to my heart. I also continue to volunteer for the Williams Syndrome Association, the most comprehensive organization supporting individuals with Williams syndrome and their families.

Parker is in first grade. He enjoys school and his favorite classes are math, computers and gym. He is addicted to minecraft and LOVES taking karate lessons.

Reed, who was born with Williams syndrome, is five now and is in his final year of PreK. He absolutely loves school and has an amazing team in place that is meeting his needs and then some. His health has been great and he is making tremendous progress in terms of academics, social skills and even adaptive skills – an area that has been especially tough for him. Reed loves being outside, watching kinder surprise egg videos and Christmas. It is Christmas all year-round in our house!

So that’s it for now. This is our new blog launch and I hope you will join us for the ride!